HandBrake

Please detail your question or problem in as much detail as possible:
Until recently, I used to record analog TV programming with Windows Media Center on Windows 7. After upgrading to Windows 10 and setting up NextPVR with an MPEG decoder that came with the hardware, I'm recording away again. (WMC was removed from Windows in version 10.)
Transcoding *.wtv items (Windows Media Center) always worked fine and gave good results. However, transcoding the *.ts files NextPVR creates gives a problem. The files it creates look like they are square pixel without a 4:3 flag, resulting in video that is stretched in height.

I have found no way so far of telling HandBrake from the GUI: 'treat this video (or all the videos in the queue, or all videos using this preset) as 4:3 input'. But I'm also not sure if my hypothesis about the files being square pixel is correct, so that's why I'm enclosing a source file and a Handbrake encoded file at the bottom of this post.

It'd be great if you could give me a push in the right direction! I've been experimenting all night yesterday with custom anamorphic settings (or just turning it off and stretching manually), but I could not get that to work in a preset with a bunch of items added to the queue at once.

Tell us about your environment. What version of HandBrake? What version of Windows are you running. etc.

• ASUSTeK Computer Inc. P5B-VM-SE board, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400, 3 GB RAM
• Windows 10 64 bit w/ latest updates (Windows 10 v1511, build 10586.218)
• Handbrake 0.10.5.0 (64 bit)

Attachments:

• Encode log
• Source file (23,9 MB)
• HandBrake result (32,7 MB)

Thanks for your time & help!

- Daan

You are correct, the pixel aspect ratio (PAR) of your video is 1:1, which is incorrect if the display aspect should be 4:3.

On the picture settings pane, select "Custom" anamorphic. Then set the PAR to 48:45. This should result in a display aspect that is 4:3.

Thanks John!
PAR Width & PAR Height are greyed out when I try to enter that. What could that be caused by?

I forgot to mention, you'll have to uncheck the "keep aspect" box.

Yep! That did the trick. *sprays confetti*

Any way to save the check box state into a User Preset, though? It seems to ignore that in mine, and I don't really feel like going over the checkbox for 17 things in a queue

That's a question for the windows GUI developer. Might be a bug.

Okay, I've filed a bug report and I'll wait for updates on that. Thanks a bunch, John!

daanbrg wrote:Okay, I've filed a bug report and I'll wait for updates on that. Thanks a bunch, John!

In the mean time, since all your files seem to require the same setup, consider scripting the encodes using HandBrakeCLI.
There are quite a few script solutions posted in the CLI forum to get you started.
That is, if you feel comfortable tinkering with scripts. I think it's great fun, but then that's me

Kaspar

Hahaha, yeah Kaspar, I like a bit of tinkering in the weekends... but I'm not aware of an easy-to-use Queue concept in the CLI.

daanbrg wrote:Hahaha, yeah Kaspar, I like a bit of tinkering in the weekends... but I'm not aware of an easy-to-use Queue concept in the CLI.

Trivial in just about any shell. pseudocode:

foreach file [glob my_directory] {
HandBrakeCLI -i $file -o encoded_$file --options whatever
}